1.

There was laughter. Lots of laughter.

The boys were running around playing football. It was summer and the breeze felt amazing against the burning rays.

I remember this. I was playing with Matt. He was still too little to play with the older kids. And I was the only one nice enough to play with him - only because I couldn't play football to be honest.

Jimmy, Ben, and Hal piled up close to the tree trying to get the ball and ended up on the ground laughing. I told Matt to stay in the sandbox and walked over to make sure they were okay, only to get a water balloon in my face.

Then Hal jumped up and held my hands behind my back, keeping me from moving. Ben went over to the hose and tried to turn it on, Jimmy going to get a bucket to fill with water. "Jimmy! Family should stick together!" I yelled. I remember Hal breathing 'bros before hoes' under his breath. He always says that when I used the family card with Jimmy, though I mostly did just to make Hal say some silly quote like that.

Then Ben would come over and dump the bucket of water over my head. Hal and Ben would laugh, then Hal would freak out because Jimmy would dump a bucket of water over his head too.

The next few hours, which right now skipped to minutes, was spent spraying water at each other. Eventually Matt would cry because we left him out of the fun, and Mr. Mason would come out to check on the screaming. He'd look at us with a look that asked what in the world we were doing just in time for Matt to figure out how to turn on the hose and spray his father in the face.

Eventually Mom came over to give Jimmy and I our medication and our family would be invited to eat with the Masons by Ben's mom.

The parents would gather around the fireplace after dinner and entertain themselves by watching Matt throw things into the fire. The older kids would go into the theater room to watch scary movies because they found it amusing to see me jump, scream, and / or squirm at them.

I was startled by screams, they were out of place from this scene.

My eyes opened as the noise pulled me back to reality.

I stood grumpily and wrapped one of Jimmy's old school jackets around myself and scuffed towards the source. I heard people yelling - mostly adult voices.

"You found Rick, and you're going for the Mason boy! What about our children, huh! They matter too ya know!"Many people's voices molded together practically saying the same thing. But 'the Mason boy' was the reason I investigated further. I thought there wasn't anything about him yet?

I pushed the doors open to the gym and looked at the gathering. Hal, Mr. Mason, Weaver, and even Jimmy stood on the stage trying to calm the people down. The door closing made Hal and Jimmy look over though. Some adults looked back and hushed when Weaver asked, but other's refused to be silenced. The only thing that made them shut up was their curious eyes following Jimmy to me.

"Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare? Is something wrong?" he asked worriedly.

Though he was younger than me by two years, he was turning fifteen and I seventeen this year, he always acted like my older brother. It was kind of comforting, but sometimes annoying. Like now.

I gave him this 'are you serious?' stare and blinked my eyes a few times.

An 'ohhhh yah' sigh escaped his lips and he asked the questions more slowly now, waiting for a response this time.

"Did you have a nightmare?" His voice was more calm now.

I shook my head no.

"Is something wrong?"

I shook my head no again.

"Are you feeling okay?"

I nodded yes.

"Have you slept yet?" His voice sounded kind of hopeful. I had gone to bed by 11 last night, only to be awoken at 3:30.

I nodded my head yes. He knew this meant I wouldn't be going back to bed now, so he led me up to the stage with the others.

Weaver patted my back when I passed him and went back to talking to the people.

"I'm sorry we've made it seem like we're only seeking out specific kids. We're looking for all the kids on the board when we go scout skitter camps. So far Rick has been the only one we've found. We aren't just looking for Ben, we're looking for everyone. Please be patient. You don't comprehend how hard and dangerous it is to get close to the camps. We're trying."

The adults seemed to calm down now, but some still looked irritated. Weaver dismissed them, then looked in my direction. It looked like he was pondering on what to say to me.

I gave the boys a very irritated and angry look. It took years to perfect it seeing as I don't have a very threatening appearance.

Standing at 5'2" and only weighing 113 pounds really made it hard enough to look angry without people laughing, but the whole pinch-able cheeks thing just screwed me over for a while. The boys helped me perfect it though, since I gave them angry looks a lot now.

They knew they needed to explain so Jimmy led me to the bleachers giving off the 'you need to sit down for this' vibe.

Once they sat down or stood around me, Mr. Mason started to explain.

"We think we've spotted Ben. We don't know for sure, we're sending out a team tomorrow morning to confirm it. If it is him, we're making it a goal to get as many kids out of there as we can."

A small smile formed on my face.

They actually found him?

Hal looked rather relieved that I didn't hit anyone, but Jimmy looked disappointed. I think he expected me to say something.

I haven't spoken a word since I saw Ben get taken. I've gone out with teams (I'm actually one of the best they've got due to my small size, fast and quiet feet, and ability to do pretty interesting tricks like parkour because of all the sports and dance teams I was on before this happened), played with kids sometimes, helped cook, even gave hair cuts and dyed hair when we were lucky enough to get a few shelves full on a scout mission. For some reason many people thought hair dye was a vital thing to have during the beginning of an alien invasion - who knew?

After they went to get a mid-night snack with me most of them said their goodnights and went to bed. Jimmy sat with me though, worried looking as always. I gave a slight smile and kissed his cheek in an attempt to reassure him.

Eventually he started yawning every two minutes and let me drag him to bed and tuck him in.

Our room was next to the Masons because they were the only other people that knew how to handle me when my anxieties or other mental problems got the best of me. See, Jimmy and I suffer from severe depression and slight bipolar disorder, but after the invasion I also began to suffer from severe anxieties - which causes horrifying realistic nightmares, slight schizophrenia, severe insomnia to the point of me now only getting a 3 or 4 hours of sleep every night, and the inability to keep my mind in the real world sometimes.

People usually stayed clear of sleeping in rooms next to mine because of my screaming and frantic freak outs of feeling like I'm trapped in my own head.

It wasn't always this bad though. I was happy and nothing was wrong. Yeah, little teenage drama happened, but I didn't have any major problems to deal with in my life (plus medication helped, which I hated to admit until I found out how bad it sucks without it).

Life was better for everyone in the Second Mass before this happened. I used to wish horror movies like this would happen, but now that it's here all I want is my naïve life back.

Eventually I got lost in my thoughts and sketched out all the random things that came to mind.

.

The sun was just trying to reach over the trees when I came back to reality. I put my sketch book away and changed into some regular clothes - tight cut up jean-Capri's (held up by my infamous home made zombie belt), a tight-ish black punisher shirt, and high tops that have been worn down and drawn on.

I brushed my fingers through my shoulder length blonde hair and pulled it up in a high ponytail, huffing to move my bangs so they swept across the right side of my head above my grey eyes. Before the invasion I used to wear eye liner to bring them out more, and I used to dye my hair so it wasn't so blonde. The blonde and grey go well with my pale skin, but sometimes I used to feel like it's just not me. I've gotten used to it though. I kind of like it now.

That's a teenager for ya, always trying to look prettier than the girl next to you. That's one good thing about this, everyone can see the greatness of each other without caring about appearances.

After I stopped thinking of the world before this one again, I went over to look in the mirror to make sure my hair checked out. But as usual, once I was done my fingers went to the dog tags hanging around my neck. They were something Ben and I had made together and each of us had a set. On one of mine was Ben's name with 'Together, forever' on it. The other had something Ben wrote for me on it. On his, it was my name and something I wrote for him. Every day I clung to mine and wondered if he still had his.

Eventually, I left my room and walked towards the kitchen. It wasn't the best because it was just a school kitchen, but it worked so that's all that matters.

Sherri and Kayla were already starting on breakfast when I pushed through the doors but looked up to give me a small smile. I went to work on cooking soup while the other girls went around me to finish whatever they found to cook. By the time we finished and started setting up to hand out about a fourth of the mass was already waiting around for us. Sherri let me go eat after I helped out for a while longer and I got some soup before heading out into the hallway. I heard footsteps behind me and instantly knew Mr. Mason was following me. I turned and started sipping my soup when he walked up to me.

"Hey 'Stella, the adults and fighters are having a meeting in the gym in a few minutes. Just figured I'd tell you so I wouldn't hurt your feelings again."I smiled a little as to say it's okay, hoping he'd catch on. Jimmy was usually the only one that could decipher what I meant. Nodding, Mr. Mason led me to the gym and up to the stage. There was almost every adult here again and I actually recognized some of the faces. I sat down cross legged and kept sipping my soup as I looked around. Jimmy and Hal soon came in, for once with Matt following behind them. Jimmy sat next to me, Hal went to stand with his father, and Matt practically tackled me once he got up the stairs. Jimmy saved my soup from spilling everywhere as I hugged the miniature version of Ben. His carefree childish self always cheered me up.

Weaver called everyone to attention and I started sipping my soup again as Matt sat down at Hal's feet. Weaver seemed so serious so I knew this was a major mission.

"Okay, I need a team of 7 or so men. Early this morning we sent a scout to view the children in the group nearby. We've confirmed there's five harnessed kids there that belong to a family here. I don't want any younger kids, we can't afford to put anyone under the age of 18 in danger of being captured. This is risky because we're actually infiltrating the enemy base without any idea of how to fight them besides getting close. I understand if you walk out right now, many of you still have some family here that you can't leave. So if you're not even considering go back with your families now."There was a pause and part of the group left. There were only 20 or so of the people left. "We will be going at night, some will be look out and a few will be selected to go into the base and get the kids. Now, Hal and Tom are already going, so that means we need five or six more."

Before Weaver could start naming off the people he picked, Jimmy interrupted him.

"Wait, why are Tom and Hal going? Hal's under 18, he's still able to be captured."

Weaver gave him a look that I couldn't place before answering.

"Because Ben Mason is in that group."